If I were a betting man ...

 I would have lost money today . . .

Saturday’s game was a first for me, first game for this season and first time in the East Stand let alone behind the drummers and it seemed to be a good game to pick.

The Irish side had relatively little changes with Skivington and Evan’s coming into the second row and Garvey shifting to flanker to replace Dec who had gone off against Worcester with a concussion. The only change for the back line was Shingler starting at full back for Homer. Saints who were unbeaten so far this season brought a strong side albeit without Hartley but yet still had Myler, Pisi and Tonga’uiha to name a few.

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The first 24 minutes were completely pointless bar the one attempt at goal from either side both missing, Myler missing first for Saints followed promptly by Shingler with plenty of kick chase rugby being played alongside, Saints showing periods of dominance in possession and territory just unable to convert it to points.

The first taste of points followed an over thrown lineout by Saint’s which was snapped up by Irish allowing them to rush forward as the Saint’s sorted out their defensive line. The ball moved through the line until it got to JJ and a grubber through allowed Yarde to kick further. At which point I thought the scoring chance was over however the bounce of the ball played into Irish hands as it bounced over one Saints defender trying to spot down the ball in the try area allowing JJ to dot it down close to the dead ball line. Despite missing the conversion Shingler soon slotted over a penalty to make the score 8-0.

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The scoring was not over for the half either, Irish had a period of possession within the Saints 22 before Paice turning over to score, Shingler converting for Irish this time. Final score of the half for Irish was from a period of advantage only just inside the Saint’s half where a large proportion of the crowd made a grown as they saw Humprey’s take a punt at goal from 40 meters out. However it sailed between the post sending Irish in at half time 18-0 up.

Half time wasn’t as comfortable for me as I would like, bringing a Saints fan with me, he was still quietly confident as he thought it was possible to catch up. Visions of last Friday’s collapse as well as other games sprung to mind and I decided to wait until the 60 min mark before I made my mind up on whether this game was for the taking.

Second half was upon us and Saint’s were the first to score with a penalty from Myler. However Irish didn’t just roll over JJ out pacing Myler and dragging the defence toward him before offloading to Ojo who was seemingly tackled if it weren’t for his momentum taking him over the line for Irish’s third try of the game. Shingler added another penalty, before Irish’s forth try which was made by Treviranus holding off two defenders one of which with a powerful hand off before offloading to Gibson to score near the corner.

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A wide range of subs soon came on for both sides for Irish O’Leary came off for Moates, Trev came off for Hala’ufia, Lahiff came off for Yanuyanutawa and among the Saint’s raft of changes Dickson came off for Roberts.

Northampton however didn’t just fade, Lamb begun taking short kick off’s to allow them to challenge for possession. This additional pressure allowed Saints to gain two scores first of which in the corner between East and North stands by Pisi which was created after 6 phases of possession for Saints, a quick tap and go penalty for Irish not rolling away and 3 further phases before crossing the line. The second being a forwards created try for Dowson. Irish half responded with two late penalties slotted over.

Final Score London Irish 39-17 Northampton Saints One sticking thought for the end of the game however was despite Irish showing marked improvements which I wish they could now take on the road. I wasn’t sure whether the win came for the abundance of Saint’s mistakes or Irish’s ability to be more clinical. Surely a combination of the two but if Saint’s were firing on all cylinders I’m sure the result would be different.

Finally a shameless plug for me, I’m doing the Great South Run at the end of this month for MacMillan Cancer care anyone who would like to donate it would be greatly appreciated and the link is here: